Category: short stories

They came while he was away in the hospital tossing in a cramped room, sweating for each breath. Pneumonia, the doctor told him and he blanched at how deep into old age he’d come. All that was left to do was break a hip, feel his mind smooth into dementia, then he’d be gone. Carol … Continue reading glenlivet

In her hand lay the remains of a moth. She'd found it on the bedroom floor as she shuffled past in the baby blue slippers Devon had bought her last month. It was in the doorway, orange and brown, one wing tilted, the other torn, its legs bent tightly into its abdomen. Or was it … Continue reading lepidoptera

The neighbor had his gun. Alice watched him put it into the glove compartment of his minivan while his wife was helping the children into their seats. He carried it with them whenever they left the city – for protection, he’d said one afternoon last summer when she’d been walking past and he’d come out … Continue reading neighbor

The house was ten miles out of town, a hollow clearing inside a shelter of trees that thickened into deep woodland as it neared the river. Mr. Brook, the property owner, said it was small, a succession of rooms that faced the wrong way, shunning the sun. It had been built by the foreman of … Continue reading a good deal

At first it was only flashes of color, a light show behind the eyelids. Sky-blue when the woman spoke, green when it was the man, a tumble of browns and yellows when the other woman came near. She touched his hand sometimes, whispered to him, and this was orange, a bright shard of it. Green … Continue reading a shard of orange light

It was Wednesday, the 5:26 stop at Jefferson St. She focused on her book, tried not to notice when he stepped into the train, took his usual spot by the door, set the black briefcase between his feet, nodded at the passenger next to him, reached for the bar to steady himself when the train … Continue reading morrisey and park

Kathleen stood in the driveway with her mother. They were looking at the gold Acura that belonged to her parents. Her mother held out her hand, letting the keys dangle from her index finger. “You’ll be careful,” she said, her voice soft, in the way that always made Kathleen want to sigh loudly. “Yes, mom, … Continue reading acura

There was a song going through her mind. “Out in the west Texas town of El Paso…” Her dad used to sing it. She could picture him leaning toward her, tweaking the tip of her nose and grinning. “…I fell in love with a Mexican girl…” She wasn’t Mexican. This inconsistency bothered her, though … Continue reading el paso

In the overgrown tangle that was the yard behind the house, he found a nest of new-born garter snakes. That’s how he knew it was the right house. He used both hands to pull apart the hedge of weed and bramble and peered in at the nest, the twist of infant snake bodies like … Continue reading talisman

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